McDonald's Tackles Repair of 'Broken' Service

4/11/2013 1:31PM

McDonald's is battling back from recent earnings disappointments, is putting unusual emphasis on a longtime challenge: getting its far-flung workforce to provide service with a smile. Joe Barrett reports. Photo: Getty Images.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

... I ... welcome back to lunch break the bid jointly from Chicago with a look at how McDonald's is trying to fix its customer service and thanks for joining us ... could this be ... so the what's really happening inside a fast food giant when it comes to satisfying a customer is the profit for the other thing I was having a lot of franchises ... perhaps make the little difficult for them to ... control over all profits going on ... it was fourteen thousand restaurants and them ... but the vast majority of them run by franchisees services the huge problem I mean is only so much that corporate can do ... and it's you know it's really there in ages the bread and butter ... the ... days of the cost of really very well through the recession they are they expanded the menu with high-end items of low end items ... in a really you know power through the recession all other franchise ... while other fast food chains were having trouble ... that all of a sudden ... they have a couple a of the sale's pickups ... in the fall then it was a big shock because he'd been nine years of ... progressively improving ... same-store sales and you know that that's a big deal for McDonald's ... so ... you know there was a kind of a moment where they change the leadership in North America ... and I and and now they you know they've decided ... to do more measuring of service in a real is that this is one other big problem so there ... that's that's what the focus is right now ... what really made me think that because here what what are they focusing on that they can fix read out the back to try to turn around ... well the big thing they're doing is they're changing the way that orders are taken so ... right now or in over three years in years when ego in a McDonald's you ... wait in line to get up to the front the place ur order ... and any kind as that back and wait because sometimes all your items are ready ... to your tray is sitting right there but it doesn't have everything on it in ... person this post be taking all the orders disorder running back and forth and getting ... drinks or you know whatever last minute items are on the menu ... are changing that around now so the order from one per cent ... they give you ... a receipt with a number on it and the need to stand at the other end the counter and then they have much more focus on other people to ... put the whole order together so ... that's with the rolling out around the country ... and the early years of ... results are pretty promising we read a story in the Chicago at ... you know people who are so the longtime ... McDonald's of maidens ... were saying all the sudden things seem a little over a lot less chaotic and the better accuracy of work we're giving workers better ... an out and get when your feet you mention that a high turnover rate of inflation also a problem that a lot of the restaurants and how can they try and fix that it is that his character effect of that for the fast food industry or is that some the specific McDonald's that they can address ... Yeh that's really an industrywide problem I mean these are entry level jobs in many cases you know ... not much more than minimum wage ... turnover industrywide is about sixty percent a year and that's ... a very difficult ... environment in which to help ... keep up your performance is one of the things that you know ... McDonald's has built a great business on but it's but